ON TARGET

On Target

Enrile kin in Port Irene smuggling?



By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:35:00 07/24/2008




The rampant smuggling of secondhand vehicles and other items at Port Irene in Cagayan province has allegedly been going on for sometime now right under the very nose of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.
But the senator has been so busy in legislative work he probably failed to take note of the report. Close aides were reportedly afraid to tell him that one of his relatives could be involved in the activities.
The senator’s son, Juan “Jack” Jr., a former congressman in the province, asked me last year to write about allegations of smuggling of cars and other items so his father would know what was happening at the port.
“Mon, I don’t want to meddle in things that are not mine, so please write about what’s happening at Port Irene so my father will know,” Jack Enrile said.
I did, but I heard the alleged cases of smuggling did not stop.
Jack and his brother-in-law, James Kochner, who allegedly had influence in Port Irene affairs, were reportedly not on good terms then. Kochner is married to Jack’s sister, Katrina.
Jack was not on speaking terms with his father at the time. That’s why when I told Jack about the reports of smuggling at Port Irene, all he did was to suggest that I write about it so the report would reach his father and so he could investigate the allegation.
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Before his captors, suspected Abu Sayyaf member, Nadzmir Amirul, looked very tame and harmless (see front page of Wednesday’s Inquirer).
He was one of the kidnappers of well-known television personality Ces Drilon and her ABS-CBN cameramen.
It’s surprising he was taken alive – and not in a cadaver bag – to the Western Mindanao Command headquarters in Zamboanga.
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The efforts of Sen. Richard Gordon, who was once chair of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), that has jurisdiction over the sprawling former US naval base, have been wasted.
During Gordon’s time, SBMA policemen were very disciplined and the crime rate inside the Subic Freeport complex was practically zero.
Now, SBMA cops allegedly accept bribes from arrested traffic violators just like their counterparts outside the complex.
There is also talk going around that some SBMA cops were reportedly involved in sexually molesting and robbing a young girl inside the complex recently.